“I can’t believe this is real,” I whispered.
“Believe it, beautiful. I’m never leaving you again. Maybe you should take Terry up on his offer.”
I laughed. “Sure. Then maybe we can get attached at the hip.”
“No, that wouldn’t work. How would I love you?”
I blushed and looked down at our clasped hands.
“I have another present for you,” Devin said, lifting up my chin to look into my eyes.
“You need to stop showering me with gifts. People are really going to think I love you for the gifts.”
He chuckled. “Come on, admit it, you like the gifts.”
I smiled shyly. “Yeah, I guess I do, but it doesn’t mean you should waste your money. You should save it.”
“Would it help to say I won them at a work raffle?”
“Did you really?” I believed him completely.
“Well, you did say you wanted to take part in the next raffle I won,” he said, pulling out a long rectangular box. “Even if it was a—”
“— honeymoon trip to Hawaii.” I finished his sentence as I opened the box, revealing a ticket to Hawaii. I looked up at him. “Are you serious?”
“I know you said we might be moving fast, but hear me out.”
“You didn’t really win this at work, did you?”
He smiled sheepishly. “No. We don’t actually have raffles at work.”
“So the Vegas trip for Mitch and Megan?”
“I bought it for them for two reasons. First I knew Mitchell would propose and secondly, I wanted to spend some time with you alone.”
“You planned the whole thing?” I asked incredulously. “So you let me win the marriage bet? I bet you even planted the idea into Mitch’s head that I needed you to stay at the house for safety.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You did! I can’t believe you. You’re a natural miscreant.”
“I did it out of love. I needed you to see what you were missing.”
“Your plan worked well.” I smiled up at him then remembered the tickets and his implication. “Do you really mean what I think you mean?”
“I know some may see it as moving too fast, but I look at it as long overdue. If we’re moving in together, I would like it to be as man and wife. I want you for myself. I want to know you’re mine and I’m yours. I love you, Chris. Nothing is going to change that so I figure why wait when we know it’s right?”
I looked down at the ticket in the box and placed it on the desk. Devin looked morose and I almost laughed at his expression. “I love you, Devin—”
“But. There’s always a but.”
I smiled this time. “I was going to say, when do we leave?”
He didn’t respond, only kissed me, and I didn’t mind. I kissed him back with all the love I felt. He was mine. I was his.
I was laughing and crying all at the same time.
“Happy tears?”
I nodded as he kissed them away.
He pulled away. “I have flights booked for tomorrow. I figured you could talk to your boss, get the time off and we could go home, pack your things and bring them over to my place and get ready to leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? That quick?”
“I can’t wait. I want to love you as Mrs. Malone tomorrow night.”
“Well, in that case,” I kissed his cheek and walked to my desk and dialed a number. “Cathy, are you free for a quick appointment? With me. Yes. Okay, I’ll be right there.” I hung up and dialed another number and waited for it to be picked up.
“This is Shelly.”
“Hi, Shelly, could you cover the phones for a few minutes?”
“Sure. You know I love it when I can cover for you. I’ll be right out.”
I hung up and turned to Devin. “So how long are we staying in Hawaii?”
“How much time off can you get?”
I shook my head and smiled at him. “And if I said a year?”
“I would say it’s not long enough.”
“How about three weeks?”
“Could you really take that much time off?”
“I can try. What about you? Who are they going to get for the show?”
“We’ve finished recording all the shows up to the finale. The cast is going to tour the country for a month and then we resume for the following season. If Rob or Terry need something, they can get someone else for that time. But they shouldn’t need anything unless Terry decides to scrap a whole scene and rerecord again,” he said, smiling down at me.
It was what started this whole thing. A scrapped scene and a new musical number had caused us to come together, caused me to see what was really going on between us.